Polyphemus

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Polyphemus (Greek: Πολύφημος, transliterated as Polyphemos in Robert Fitzgerald's translation), a character in Greek mythology, is a Cyclops, the one-eyed son of Poseidon and Thoosa. Polyphemus plays a pivotal role in Homer's Odyssey.

1 Polyphemus in Homer's Odyssey
2 Polyphemus in Theocritus
3 Polyphemus in Ovid's Metamorphoses
4 Other mythological figures
5 See also

[edit] Polyphemus in Homer's Odyssey

In the story of Homer's Odyssey, during the titular character's journey home, Odysseus lands on the Island of the Cyclops. He then takes twelve other men and sets out to find supplies. The Greeks find a large cave. They enter and proceed to feast on roasting sheep they find there. Unknown to them, the cave is the home of the Cyclops Polyphemus, who soon returns home to find Odysseus and his men there. The Cyclops then rolls a great stone in front of the entrance to his cave, trapping the Greeks within. Odysseus then devises a very clever escape plan, true to his character throughout the Iliad and the Odyssey.

To make Polyphemus unwary Odysseus gave the Cyclops very strong unwatered wine. When Polyphemus asks for Odysseus' name, Odysseus tells him "ουτις," a name which is translated as "Noman" or "Nobody," but which has been used allusively by later authors. Once the giant passes out from the wine, Odysseus and his men sharpen the giant's club to a point and harden its tip in the embers of the giant's own fire. Several men lift the stake - which is made from olive wood and large as a ship's mast - and destroy Polyphemus' only eye. He yells out to his fellow Cyclops that "Noman" ("Nobody" in Robert Fitzgerald's translation) hurt him; the others take this to mean that Polyphemus has lost his mind, because he was saying "nobody" attacked him. They also conclude his condition is a curse from a god, and so they do not intervene. In the morning, Odysseus ties his men and himself to the undersides of Polyphemus' sheep. When the Cyclops lets the sheep out to graze, he feels their backs to ensure the men aren't riding out, but doesn't feel the men underneath.

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Once the sheep (and men) are safely out, Polyphemus realizes that the men aren't in his cave. As Odysseus and his men sail away, he boasts to Polyphemus that "Noman didn't hurt you, Odysseus did!" Unfortunately, Odysseus didn't realize that Polyphemus was the son of Poseidon; Odysseus had already earned the enmity of that god, by defiling his temple in Troy and devising the sack of Troy, a city that held Poseidon in greatest esteem (although Poseidon had largely fought on the side of the Greeks during the Iliad). Polyphemus then casts a curse upon Odysseus, spiced with a hefty rock that he throws after the ship; for this, Poseidon causes Odysseus a great deal of trouble throughout the rest of the Odyssey.

[edit] Polyphemus in Theocritus

The Hellenistic poet Theocritus painted a more sympathetic picture of Polyphemus. The monster of the Odyssey has been recast in the poet's bucolic style which idealized the simple country life. Polyphemus becomes a gentle simpleminded shepherd. Theocritus' poems paint Polyphemus as a shepherd in love with the sea-nymph Galatea, finding solace in song.

[edit] Polyphemus in Ovid's Metamorphoses

The Cyclops also appears in the story of Acis and Galatea. As a jealous suitor of the sea nymph, Galatea, he kills his rival Acis with a rock. Although the full story was described by Ovid, it was also mentioned by Philoxenus and Theocritus.

[edit] Other mythological figures

Additionally, one of the Argonauts was named Polyphemus. He helped Heracles search for Hylas, and both were left behind by the Argo. In Iliad I, Nestor numbers "the godlike Polyphemus" among an earlier generation of heroes of his youth, "the strongest men that Earth has bred, the strongest men against the strongest enemies, a savage mountain-dwelling tribe whom they utterly destroyed." No trace of such an oral tradition, which Homer's listeners would have recognized in Nestor's allusion, survived in literary epic.